LarryBo

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $399.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
Let's get it straight right at the beginning--this is a hell of a lot of receiver for $400 (or even at list price of 500 bucks)! Sound is vivid, imaging great, plenty of inputs! I decided to go out and buy a digital co-ax cable for my DVD, even though I could have re-assigned one of the optical inputs to that task--just to make it simpler for my wife to use. (My friend who is an audio consultant says that digital co-ax is superior to optical anyway--less jitter!) I bought this unit to replace a five-year-old Sony STRD1015G (which cost more than twice as much) which was driving me crazy with its unreliability (will it or won't it turn off the TV--will it select the CD I requested from the "jukebox" etc). Also I wanted more S-video and component input capabilities. Old one sounded fine--this one sounds even better!

Strengths:
Plenty of power for my 14x24 family room, using JBL 3-way towers w/10" main drivers, Mirage center speaker, Sony WMSA 500 sub and no-name 6-1/2" coaxial surrounds mounted in-ceiling. I own a Sony touch-screen universal remote, but the supplied remote is more convenient to use (plus I primarily use the TIVO remote). My neighbor has a $100,000 home theater,but people tell me that my sound is better than his!

Weaknesses:
On-screen display is very rudimentary--OK for setup, but of no use in day to day operation. (Unit is out of sight in a rack w/IR repeater) Other units I've used (Denon, Marantz, Yamaha) would give one on-screen information when changing inputs, volume controls et al--no luck with this one. Sony bias (certain features work only w/associated Sony components) is still present, but not as egregious as in some other Sony receivers I've worked with!

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo, Sony, Marantz, Yamaha

Price Paid:  $360.00 from www.6ave.com

Summary:
This was purchased to replace the STRDE935 Which I found perfectly fine for movies in 5.1. Although in Music The clipping at half volume destroyed some Polk RTi38's. Any way I got this new 995 with the hopes of going to 7.1 easily. Aint gonna happen folks. Sony failed to mention that they preprogrammed the DVD Section (which uses the auto detect sourceing) with a coaxial digital cable only and now my Sony DVD player is virtually worthless since it has an optical cable output, but no coaxial digital output. Now I need a new DVD Player. Sounds like collusion to me. Any Lawyers want a class action? The setup for the surround has some advantages over the older system it's a bit easier to get to the setup and adjust the speaker perameters. They eliminated a whole range of preset sound venues from the earlier version, but that was no loss. I havent even tried using this for music other than some music DVDs. I plan on staying with my old Sansui for all music from now on. The digital processing doesn't have any headroom anyway. Also Im reall disappointed that they wate so much time forcing the use of thier on screen menu. Come on Sony we have to be at the receiver to make changes anyway, since you made the remote so bloody. I am glad however that they finally made ALL the speaker outs for Banana Plugs although some genius of an engineer stacked them the wrong way and double plugs won't work on all the outputs. overall it sounds really good in neo 6 and DTS. Keep in mind these aren't the most expensive units available by any means. I think if they don't get all these issues figured out in the next year I'm going to a THX certified system. The Unit Sounds OK but not really any remarkable differences from the older 935.

Strengths:
Easy in set up. clear display Banana Plugs for all speakers Finally

Weaknesses:
REMOTE HAS NO PROGRAM FOR DISH NETWORK SONY'S RIVAL I had to teach it some commands only coax cable for DVD no Optical in for DVD

Similar Products Used:
strde995